VLC Pulse Audio 5.1 Patch

[Id2ndR]

Binary package hint: vlc

System : jaunty
Packages added : vlc-plugin-pulse

VLC doesn't use more than 2 channels with a surround sound and surround configuration in PulseAudio.

danwood76 create a patch to add the surround support on http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=997799

[Joachim R. (jro)]

I don't think the bug is only VLC. Since I upgraded to Ubuntu 9.04 amd64, all PulseAudio applications don't use subwoofer anymore.
PulseAudio is configured 6 channel mode, and the order is checked OK by a successful speaker-test : I can hear sound in each speaker at the right time, and subwoofer is OK. PulseAuydio volume meters are showing meters moving synchronously with speaker-test, so it is OK.
BUT : VLC Pulse, Audacious with PulseAudio plugin, ogmtools, mpg123, etc... don't use subwoofer any more when playing stereo. PulseAudio volumemeters are confirming that subwoofer is the only one to remain silent.

So it appears to be more a pulseaudio bug : it stopped to mix right and left channels into subwoofer/lfe channel when a siource with no explicit subwoofer/lfe channel is playing.

[Reinhard Tartler (siretart)]

adding additional bugtasks

[Reinhard Tartler (siretart)]

Quoting from the upstream pulseaudio bug:

> This is not a bug. We simply decided to not synthesize an LFE channel anymore. See the
> disable-lfe-remixing option in daemon.conf.

I think there is not much we can do about then in the vlc package then. Other opinions?

[Id2ndR (id2ndr)]

At time I opened the bug, the trouble was that there was only 2 channels. The issue with LFE channel is not directly linked to the original bug.

If someone can get more than 2 channels with VLC, then the bug can be considered as fixed, but as far as I know it's not the case.

[Rémi Denis-Courmont (rdenis)]

The fix is already in VLC 1.0.5 and as such in Ubuntu Lucid.